Boulder's Police Oversight Panel adopts its bylaws

Mar. 11—Boulder's Police Oversight Panel on Thursday approved the original set of bylaws that will govern the group moving forward after rejecting most of the minimal feedback provided by the community.

The 9-member panel, created by the Boulder City Council after calls for police reform in Boulder, conducted its first meeting in February 2021. It's tasked with reviewing complaint investigation files and making disciplinary, policy and training recommendations.

It's been in the process of developing bylaws for months. It released a draft of the laws in mid-February and accepted comments through March 2.

The rules tackle everything — from more mundane definitions, procedural guidance and scheduling details to the procedures for complaints and policy review and the standards for privacy and confidentiality.

Overall the changes recommended were fairly minor. Daniel Leonard, co-chair of the panel, read the recommendations aloud at Thursday's meeting and the panelists considered each.

One person suggested removing the land acknowledgement, a formal statement that recognizes the relationship that exists between Indigenous people and their traditional territories, arguing it didn't make sense to include and felt performative.

However, the panel decided there was no downside to including it and also recognized that a former Indigenous member of the panel felt it was important.

Another person suggested either disallowing anonymous complaints or not giving anonymous complaints the same credence.

In response, panelist Bwembya Chikolwa referenced the country's whistleblower law, which protects federal employees who disclose corruption from adverse consequences related to their employment.

"That's where retaliation comes in," he said.

Perhaps one of the most important components of the newly approved bylaws is the section where it outlines the process and procedure for complaints and policy review.

When complaints or concerns come in, Independent Police Monitor Joey Lipari will exclude the name and rank identifiers before providing a summary to the panel.

This is a preliminary measure designed to ensure contemplative thought regarding the substantive nature of the complaint's assignment as well as prevention of any potential for name recognition or power differential dynamics, the bylaws state.

The panel will then vote in an open session on whether to move forward with a case investigation in a majority vote of those present.

Once complaints are accepted or rejected for further review, the parties' identifiers will be restored in a closed session so conflicts of interest can be determined.

Should the panel ultimately conclude that an allegation should be sustained, the panel will recommend corrective action consistent with Boulder Police Department's disciplinary matrix.

According to the bylaws, this could also include recommendations for changes to systems, training specific to practice improvement, suspension, disciplinary action and/or including termination of employment.

Some violations could have legal implications, subjecting the police officer and/or police department to civil or criminal penalties, fines or other sanctions, the bylaws state.

The Police Oversight Panel did not receive any feedback about this section of the bylaws, aside from several comments that argued the panel should have the power to punish or terminate police officers directly.

However, doing so would require an update to the ordinance forming the panel that was approved by Boulder City Council in November 2020.

"That's not power or authority that's granted to the oversight panel through the ordinance," Leonard said.

While the panel did not receive an extensive amount of feedback from the community about the bylaws, he noted the bylaws will continue to evolve.

"This is not an end to feedback on the police oversight panel's bylaws," Leonard said. "At any time, we can amend these bylaws as a panel."

Additionally, the panel acknowledged the sense of responsibility it felt when drafting the bylaws because this is the first panel of its kind in Boulder. Future panels will benefit from the work that went into developing these rules, panelist Taishya Adams said Thursday.